Doesn't do justice to its predecessors

Rating: 1/10 (1 January 2007)

Others have mentioned "Logan's Run", "1984" and "Brave New World" as possible inspirations for the movie, but those do far more justice to the totalitarian/faux-utopian story genre. I just found it so terribly bad, like this was the low carb, diet coke version of a much superior film. And it's not because it was visually bad (though the scene where Ewan McGregor's character pees out metal pellets will forever burn an imprint into the pain sector of my brain), this shallow film seemed to miss the point entirely.
The blatant product placement, the smug and rather unlikable main characters take away from the basic premise and tired plot, which drags on for 2 hours too long. I think that was the Achilles' heel of the film. People have to be able to empathize with McGregor's or Johansson's plight, or at least like them a little, but I don't even feel sorry for them on any emotional level because they don't have humanistic flaws. It was not unlike watching a spoiled socialite use a rotary dial phone or an anorexic supermodel talking about starving children in third world countries . The clones are not like you and I. They are immaculate carbon copies with elementary school level educations, coyly unaware of their budding sexuality. They were raised on perfect body farms and tanning booths (probably), so who actually cares if they get scrapped for parts? It's a formulaic, Hollywood engineered effects-spectacular: have male and female leads that the 17-32 demographic finds attractive + a lot of special effects + tried (and tried and tried) and true plot = box office success, right?.
Except that the people who wrote this movie (it's not a film because it lacks expository depth, don't strain yourself reaching for the dictionary to tell me the definition) greatly underestimated the average movie-goer's intelligence. Yes, people including myself enjoy wasting money on dumb funny films if it makes them laugh, but only if it's on purpose (a la "Snakes on a Plane"). The cameos by Michael Clarke Duncan and Steve Buscemi had me wondering if Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck were going to show up, then Bruce Willis could crash through a window 'yippee ki yay' style after rising from his extraterrestrial grave and do "Armageddon 2: Asteroid's Revenge". The superficiality is kind of insulting by movie's end. Audiences enjoyed somewhat similar films like "The Matrix", "Blade Runner",(sigh) "V for Vendetta", and of course the previously mentioned classic novels/films "1984", "Logan's Run", and "Brave New World" because they were well written, despite astronomically lower budgets and outdated special effects.
But if you enjoy predictability, massive explosions, and artificial sweeteners, you just might enjoy this movie and all other saccharin Michael Bay movies. I for one, feel dumber for having watched it on cable.